Speaker 1: Get ready for a comeback story. It's one you haven't
Speaker 1: heard before because it's unique. It's about a man who
Speaker 1: was in deep trouble physically, psychologically, emotionally, and after years
Speaker 1: of suffering, he found his path back to a healthy,
Speaker 1: fulfilling life only after a near death experience provided an epiphany.
Speaker 1: Bernie Kozar was a beloved NFL veteran, mostly with the Browns.
Speaker 1: He later won a Super Bowl ring with the Cowboys
Speaker 1: and held two passing records, but stood for about three
Speaker 1: decades before they were broken by Tom Brady. Bernie also
Speaker 1: quarterback the Miami Hurricanes to a stunning national championship back
Speaker 1: in eighty three. Now Bernie credits his dramatic return to
Speaker 1: health to a regiment that is holistic, natural, and unconventional.
Speaker 1: None of those methods are endorsed by this podcast, at
Speaker 1: the exclusion of modern medicine, I have not used them.
Speaker 1: If they interest you, the information is easily searched. It
Speaker 1: seems wise to make your health choices based on your
Speaker 1: instincts and people you trust. Bernie is not endorsing any
Speaker 1: companies or products are selling anything except hope, and that
Speaker 1: he says has become a responsibility. So Bernie, I'm so
Speaker 1: grateful for your time and willingness to tell your story.
Speaker 1: We were at a scrimmage University of Miami, your alma mater,
Speaker 1: of course, watching them practice, making small talk as you
Speaker 1: do in a practice. I'm asking you about Tyler Van Dyke,
Speaker 1: the Hurricanes quarterback, and then I stopped and say, hey, so,
Speaker 1: how you doing? Like what you've been up to? And
Speaker 1: little did I know You're gonna tell me this incredible
Speaker 1: comeback story, and that's what we're here to talk about.
Speaker 1: But can you describe the difference between where you are
Speaker 1: now looking and send and so healthy and where you
Speaker 1: were when you began this comeback journey? Well, Chris, great
Speaker 1: to be with you today, and absolutely after you asked
Speaker 1: that that nice question with such genuineness, I'm so happy
Speaker 1: that you actually still consider me friends and you actually
Speaker 1: called me back and stuff because you got way, you
Speaker 1: got a way longer winded answers, and I think you
Speaker 1: envisioned uh envisioned when we talked. We started talking about
Speaker 1: it as we were watching Tyler at the U start
Speaker 1: making making some amazing plays with the coach Cristo bal
Speaker 1: abound there. But I'm so glad that I got that answer.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad the answer was way more involved than
Speaker 1: I thought it was gonna be. Well, you know, thanks,
Speaker 1: And as I as, I'm really getting into the late
Speaker 1: third quarter, early fourth quarter of my life, and you
Speaker 1: kind of reflect back on really where you're at, what
Speaker 1: you've done, UM, and you think back with just as
Speaker 1: a ex football player finance economics major at the University
Speaker 1: of Miami, and you start doing the math on almost
Speaker 1: forty surgeries, probably broken bones, UM, probably over a hundred concussions.
Speaker 1: Started having UH seizures at fourteen and fifteen season years,
Speaker 1: of which the last couple of seizure size in a
Speaker 1: coma for seventy two and ninety six hours. UM, Chris,
Speaker 1: as I punished you on the sidelines of the game,
Speaker 1: and as we were talking, UM, if that would have
Speaker 1: been five years ago when we were talking, I was
Speaker 1: quite a few ho hoes north of three pounds. UM.
Speaker 1: My ability to articulate, enunciate, communicate really any multiple syllable
Speaker 1: words was what was negligible, UM, being almost four four
Speaker 1: and a half years ago to to be diagnosed from
Speaker 1: doctors to say five years left the cognitive brain function
Speaker 1: and to really not even be able to say cognitive
Speaker 1: nor understand what cognitive meant at that moment was what
Speaker 1: was actually pretty scary. And when you're when you're dealing
Speaker 1: with those type of issues and and you're really trying
Speaker 1: to get yourself out of it, UM I found I
Speaker 1: found that UM I wasn't having much success, and no
Speaker 1: disrespect and no disrespect to the doctors and some of
Speaker 1: the treatments that I've received, not even from the NFL
Speaker 1: in terms of some of the treatments that UM. Probably
Speaker 1: they that definitely did not help UM and probably took
Speaker 1: you down a pathway of of of of issues with it.
Speaker 1: But I'm kind of proud to myself when you're in
Speaker 1: that situation UM too, especially that last seizure. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm coming in it's the fourth day, you're out for
Speaker 1: almost ninety six hours, and the doctors come in and
Speaker 1: they say, hey, you're really a tough guy. You're doing good.
Speaker 1: Keep up with your protocols, keep up with your medicine.
Speaker 1: And I'm like thinking to myself, God, I think this
Speaker 1: is what's killing me. I mean, that's what's in cabining
Speaker 1: me here. Since I retired in UM, I've been on
Speaker 1: four or five high blood pressure fills, three or four
Speaker 1: cholesterol pills, three or four anti information pills. I mean
Speaker 1: starting your day with all most a dozen pills a
Speaker 1: day um, for this entire century before. And that's not
Speaker 1: even counting all the pain medications and sleeping pills and
Speaker 1: depression type medicines that you get going with and you're
Speaker 1: in still an excessive pain, you're not sleeping, and your
Speaker 1: emotional mood swings are really scary. So as a as
Speaker 1: a man suffering through that type stuff, trying to figure
Speaker 1: out and hoping that there was a pathway, some type
Speaker 1: of hope, some type of treatment for me, and I
Speaker 1: wasn't finding much success so myself. But when you're at
Speaker 1: kind of that crossroads, UM, I kind of I went
Speaker 1: down a pathway of myself and trying to find some
Speaker 1: answers myself to UM find my own healing. And I'm
Speaker 1: really proud now to be here, UM almost four and
Speaker 1: a half five years later, UM, to not have been
Speaker 1: having any seizures, to not have to have taken any
Speaker 1: pills or medication pill wise, and almost four years too,
Speaker 1: to have lost a hundred pounds, to be able to articulate, enunciate,
Speaker 1: communicating multiple syllable words is something that UM, it's getting
Speaker 1: it's almost life changing, and it's stuff as you know,
Speaker 1: you and me were talking about that day. UM. As
Speaker 1: older men, UM, you want to have that era of
Speaker 1: always having a game plan, always having the answers, always
Speaker 1: being right, always being in control, always being able to
Speaker 1: lead and help others. But in reality, UM, it's tough
Speaker 1: for us to admit that our bodies are deteriorating. We
Speaker 1: don't have all the answers. UM. Sometimes we need others
Speaker 1: to help us. And when you're able to, UM, maybe
Speaker 1: admit some of your weaknesses, some of your issues. I
Speaker 1: think that's kind of one of the first pathways towards
Speaker 1: maybe getting yourself healing and getting yourself in a better way.
Speaker 1: So one of the things I've been able to I'm
Speaker 1: proud to be able to do. And again it's it's
Speaker 1: You've heard me say, I'm not overly proud sometimes to
Speaker 1: talk about some of those things in my past, but
Speaker 1: I'm really proud about overcoming some of those issues. Even
Speaker 1: if you're Delta bad hand and you're Delta tough situation, somehow,
Speaker 1: some way, the old Jimmy Johnson mine, somehow, some way
Speaker 1: find a way to make a difference, get things better.
Speaker 1: And it started with myself and finding out how I
Speaker 1: could heal myself and proudly to be able to sit
Speaker 1: here and and feel thousand percent better than I did
Speaker 1: multiple years ago. It's almost now a responsibility, I think,
Speaker 1: to talk to some of my other brothers in the
Speaker 1: league that have gone through even more issues than myself
Speaker 1: and show that and let them know that there, hey,
Speaker 1: there is some hope out there. There isn't an opportunity
Speaker 1: to maybe work on yourself from a holistic standpoint, that
Speaker 1: um um that gives you light at the end of
Speaker 1: the tunnel, Well, we'll certainly open up a lot of
Speaker 1: the things you just touched on there. This is not
Speaker 1: a story about weakness, is a story about strength, and
Speaker 1: you have every right to be proud of what you've
Speaker 1: done on so many levels. And the message you can
Speaker 1: deliver to as you call them, your brothers in the NFL,
Speaker 1: will get to all of that stuff, including um, the
Speaker 1: low point, the moment of truth when you had to
Speaker 1: sort of take charge of your own health. But when
Speaker 1: you reeled off Bernie, when you reeled off the hose stats,
Speaker 1: all the injuries, all the surgeries, you said, a hundred concussions,
Speaker 1: you tell me before maybe what fifteen or twenty of
Speaker 1: those have been full knockout concussions, which is which is
Speaker 1: a shocking number. When when when when you reel that off,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's you, that's your body, that's all the
Speaker 1: pain and all the uncertainty, and all the work and
Speaker 1: all the rehab and all the pills. Do you have
Speaker 1: to detach from that? I mean, is that? Does it
Speaker 1: seem real? When you describe what you've been through as
Speaker 1: a result of football? You know what it's almost like
Speaker 1: when you're laying in the hospital bed in a coma
Speaker 1: and you almost still up almost an out of body
Speaker 1: experience to your various stute point, Sometimes you do have
Speaker 1: to detach yourself from the emotion or the pain at
Speaker 1: times of what you're going through. At least I did
Speaker 1: to try to objectively be able to come to an
Speaker 1: understanding and come to an idea of um finding a
Speaker 1: pathway of something that absolutely could be successful or helpful
Speaker 1: for myself. I was absolutely a challenge. But the question
Speaker 1: is why, why why go on? I mean, what you
Speaker 1: were going through that how many times do you contemplate
Speaker 1: ending your career just saying, hey that this is what
Speaker 1: am I doing here? I mean, after after beating, after peating,
Speaker 1: an operation after operation. Obviously you love the game. Growing
Speaker 1: up in Northeast Ohio, Youngstown, it's in your blood. But
Speaker 1: that had to be some some soul searching at some point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know the soul searching part as a again, as
Speaker 1: a as a little boy who grew up in Youngstown, Ohio,
Speaker 1: halfway between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, in a in a steel
Speaker 1: industry and manufacturing type town. In the fifties, sixties, early seventies,
Speaker 1: it was one of the greatest places economically to be. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: by the late seventies and early eighties, the mills and
Speaker 1: the still most the manufacturing jobs dissipated here in our
Speaker 1: country and for sure in our region. So the inability
Speaker 1: for um, a lot of families to have some success um,
Speaker 1: to to maybe better themselves, to go to college, to
Speaker 1: get to grieves, um, to find um your life's work
Speaker 1: was really challenging back then. And sports in young So
Speaker 1: Ohio it was really the only vehicle to help get
Speaker 1: yourself to maybe better yourself slash and are better better
Speaker 1: your family. So UM to play sports UM kind of
Speaker 1: as a way to take care of your family, to
Speaker 1: take care of yourself is really one of the really
Speaker 1: kind of few options you had, so kind of going
Speaker 1: through kind of going through that UM almost forced you
Speaker 1: to do it. And Christially, almost the majority of UM,
Speaker 1: the majority of the surgeries and the majority of what
Speaker 1: you really realize UM of the pain and the challenges
Speaker 1: of it actually wasn't as much when you were playing UM.
Speaker 1: It's the most of the surgeries came post playing UM.
Speaker 1: Most of the UM physical therapy, rehab, pain medications UM
Speaker 1: we're post were post playing days. UM. A lot of
Speaker 1: this I hadn't really UM. A lot of situations where
Speaker 1: some I had some good influences that gave me some
Speaker 1: good advice to plant it, some good seeds as the
Speaker 1: things maybe you should do and something's just as important
Speaker 1: maybe you shouldn't do. So to be able to have
Speaker 1: some good, good direction at times UM, to to start
Speaker 1: at least knowing that you've got to figure out your
Speaker 1: own pathway of a holistic medicine kind of gave me
Speaker 1: the empathus to UM impetus last maybe desperation of laying
Speaker 1: there UM when you're having that last seizure like that yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you've gone there now. So let's let's go
Speaker 1: back to the moment that you've described as having your
Speaker 1: your last seizure. We talked earlier you were you know,
Speaker 1: should I change that and say hopefully my last? Yes? Okay,
Speaker 1: well we're gonna call it your last see your most
Speaker 1: recent seizure if you want to be clinically correct here.
Speaker 1: But so listen, you you're you're flying around, you're still active,
Speaker 1: You're you're actually doing some work trying to help the
Speaker 1: NFL understand the concussion issue. You're in o Hare Airport,
Speaker 1: you have this seizure and you said it was, you know,
Speaker 1: four and a half days later you regained consciousness and
Speaker 1: a doctor is saying, hey, let's get back at it.
Speaker 1: Same old, same old, conventional therapy. Keep And you told me, Bernie,
Speaker 1: at that moment you had a realization and that only
Speaker 1: came because during that coma, during that of time, it
Speaker 1: was it was a period of dramatic learning for you,
Speaker 1: which is quite a powerful thing to describe. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: as as you're saying that, the the the emotions um
Speaker 1: are really really go through your um. From from that perspective,
Speaker 1: the um when you're when you're laying there. When you're
Speaker 1: laying there in the hospital like that, and you m
Speaker 1: you're in your fourth fourth day and the doct does
Speaker 1: come in and say, keep up with the protocols, keep
Speaker 1: up with the pain medications, keep up up with with
Speaker 1: all that you um, UM, you really have a lot
Speaker 1: of UM. At least myself, I had a lot of
Speaker 1: real almost depressed because you knew, you knew that wasn't
Speaker 1: the pathway, uh to working at it, and you're actually
Speaker 1: really scared because you don't. I hadn't yet attempted to
Speaker 1: do to do um my holistic protocols. I wasn't convinced,
Speaker 1: you know that they were going to work. UM. But
Speaker 1: to see yourself, to be to know you're you're laying
Speaker 1: there in bed yet, to fill your presence, to fill
Speaker 1: your body, your spirit, to not be in in your body,
Speaker 1: and to be kind of almost looking at yourself, UM,
Speaker 1: to have you have decisions to make. And I really
Speaker 1: felt I had decisions that I had to make and
Speaker 1: that I was being almost shown shown some things of
Speaker 1: of what's happening with me, and almost a decision type
Speaker 1: of uh opportunity decision was put in front of me
Speaker 1: that UM you know bluntly was was scary at the time,
Speaker 1: but when you do what I I it was meditating
Speaker 1: and thinking through it, and it almost as you're you're
Speaker 1: asking me now, and as I'm almost kind of put
Speaker 1: myself back in that spot to to see how you
Speaker 1: are almost given a message um U two and the
Speaker 1: message of decision to be made. Um almost coaching you
Speaker 1: up like my old coaches, to show you a pathway
Speaker 1: only only to help myself, but to help others now.
Speaker 1: And when I came out and came out of that
Speaker 1: a coma, it's almost like, um, um, I saw myself
Speaker 1: coming back into my body, UM. And I knew that
Speaker 1: I had this mission, I had this passion, I have
Speaker 1: this responsibility of of of knowledge that UM I wanted
Speaker 1: to go explore. And when the almost at that time,
Speaker 1: the doc comes in and says, hey, keep up with
Speaker 1: those protocols. You're doing good, and it's almost like I was.
Speaker 1: I just had this conversation with myself or was pulled
Speaker 1: that that's not the pathway. And you know I started, um,
Speaker 1: you know, as you and me have been talking, you know,
Speaker 1: off air and stuff. I started going down this holistic
Speaker 1: pathway because the juice, Yeah, V therapy, They let's let's
Speaker 1: let's start with that path because you're you're making it
Speaker 1: aparture a decision that stepping away from conventional medicine. We
Speaker 1: all have to trust doctors to varying degrees in our life,
Speaker 1: but you trusted yourself more. You trusted the voice that
Speaker 1: came to you. So you launch into something which is exciting.
Speaker 1: It could be energizing, but also because it's uncertain, it
Speaker 1: could be a little scary. What were those first steps
Speaker 1: like when you tried to figure out what can I do?
Speaker 1: That's quote unquote holistic, not f d a proof, not
Speaker 1: tried and true, but feels right to me. What were
Speaker 1: the first steps when I was laying in that hospital,
Speaker 1: but there I knew that the NFL and the old
Speaker 1: teams I played for, they aren't going to help us.
Speaker 1: And this is not to pick on the league, it's
Speaker 1: not to pick on my old team and something. But
Speaker 1: the realization that they aren't going to help and that
Speaker 1: I'm going to die and I think I just died
Speaker 1: a couple of days earlier, that if I don't figure
Speaker 1: this out, if I don't take it into my own hands,
Speaker 1: and that kind of um UM, that kind of decision
Speaker 1: that was almost freeing of me, because there is parts
Speaker 1: of us as players, as older guys that want to
Speaker 1: be helped. You know, we say we want to do
Speaker 1: it ourselves. We are kind of looking for help, We're
Speaker 1: looking for direction. We're looking for the team, the league,
Speaker 1: the docs to give us that answer, UM, to really
Speaker 1: relieve us from the pain, the uncertainty, the damage that's
Speaker 1: going on within us. UM during that last tacoma, that
Speaker 1: was the real realization that that wasn't gonna happen. And
Speaker 1: I don't harbor any animosity towards any of the people
Speaker 1: I was just talking about. I just knew that for
Speaker 1: me to be healthy, to be alive, to to have
Speaker 1: a positive difference in people's lives and my own children's lives,
Speaker 1: to be there to walk my daughters down the aisle,
Speaker 1: I needed to make a concerted change and I needed
Speaker 1: to figure uh figure this out. And that's when I
Speaker 1: really um knew that I had to had to find
Speaker 1: this and that's when I organically, UM from an organic
Speaker 1: wellness standpoint, UM, made this life changing decisions. You talked,
Speaker 1: you've listed food as being a key component. Food is
Speaker 1: your medicine. You mentioned I V used I V therapy
Speaker 1: for vitamins because it's more efficient than pills. You also
Speaker 1: found something called Rick Simpson oil sometimes known as R
Speaker 1: s O. Folks can search it. It's a cannabinoid oil.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a full spectrum extract. It's powerful, it
Speaker 1: has high th HC. What role did that oil play
Speaker 1: on you? Because claims have been made that including by
Speaker 1: the creator of it, that it cured his cancer. It's
Speaker 1: it's not an approved um therapy by a lot of
Speaker 1: conventional medicine, and people should do their own research. But
Speaker 1: what effect did it have on you? Bernie? What role
Speaker 1: did did did R s O play in your recovery? Well? You, uh, Chris,
Speaker 1: one of the one of the things that's um um
Speaker 1: the food is your medicine. As a inbred Slovak who
Speaker 1: grew up on cabasi and parogis for breakfast, that is
Speaker 1: not the breakfast the champions. Okay, so um and I
Speaker 1: love my mother and I love my heritage and they're
Speaker 1: the best cooks in the world. But um for long
Speaker 1: term living and to make it past retirement age, Okay,
Speaker 1: I had to find another another way of eating. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I became a big juicer um, water based, vegetable based
Speaker 1: um as absolutely as you astuteley said, food is your medicine,
Speaker 1: and then IVY therapy as has been a major influence
Speaker 1: for me. If if we take a vitamin A supplement,
Speaker 1: a pill eight to twelve absorbed into the cell and
Speaker 1: cell membrane from an IVY component. UM, I know, none
Speaker 1: of us, like needles, we all say we don't want
Speaker 1: to do that, but from an IVY perspective, UM, me
Speaker 1: and you are old enough to have said, we grew
Speaker 1: up on hearing the commercial one a day vitamin. Like
Speaker 1: we said, that absorbed into your cell and cell membrane.
Speaker 1: But basically those components of the one a day vitamin,
Speaker 1: the vitamin sees the magnesiums, the zincs to be complexes.
Speaker 1: You're optimizing your d levels of that gets into your
Speaker 1: your bloodstream when you do it from an IVY perspective,
Speaker 1: so those are the two very important components of it.
Speaker 1: But after all those years, uh, and I say this,
Speaker 1: since two thousand and eighteen, really this whole century, mom
Speaker 1: third decade of doing way too much medication. The food
Speaker 1: is your medicine, deducing the IVY therapy and then um,
Speaker 1: the the Rick Simpson oil UM and from the cannabis
Speaker 1: CBD th C component of it, there there is a
Speaker 1: real I believe at least a real medicinal realdinal anti
Speaker 1: inflammation principles that happened in the CBD cannabis world, and
Speaker 1: that of building the combination of those three in Christian medicine,
Speaker 1: the Rick Simpson oil and RSO UM which Rick Simpson
Speaker 1: was a man who had cancer UM who instead of
Speaker 1: doing chemotherapy he went down the whole list of path
Speaker 1: of doing that and found amazing results with that. I'm
Speaker 1: not here today making UM doctor claims from that standpoint,
Speaker 1: but it's also Chris was UM the the RSO the
Speaker 1: medicinal benefits of being able to take people that are
Speaker 1: UM doing too many pills, whether again with all the
Speaker 1: pain medications, depression type medicines UM UM sleeping type medicines
Speaker 1: that really weren't working. I was still in pain and
Speaker 1: still not sleeping. To be able to get yourself off
Speaker 1: of that with UM food I V S and then
Speaker 1: are the the RSO the oil from the medicinal standpoint, UM,
Speaker 1: it was absolutely game changing for me and for me
Speaker 1: then to be able then to from a UM UM
Speaker 1: work or chemistry standpoint, be able now to break up
Speaker 1: UM in a couple of a couple of the research
Speaker 1: people I work with, to be able not to break
Speaker 1: out the UM psychoactivity and some of the UH and
Speaker 1: some of the canniboids absolutely being game changing now to
Speaker 1: be able to medicinely heal UM people. And it's absolutely
Speaker 1: healed myself, and it was I've been paying attention to
Speaker 1: this UM probably for half dozen years. I started it
Speaker 1: myself four and a half years ago, and the combination
Speaker 1: of all of that has been so game changing to me.
Speaker 1: Besides UM losing go over a hundred pounds and and
Speaker 1: slowing down at least, the deterioration and the inability to
Speaker 1: articulate and enunciate communicate from from the predimensia standpoint has
Speaker 1: really been game changing, game changing with that yeh, Tobacca,
Speaker 1: you said it quickly, but that what a terrifying thing
Speaker 1: when when doctors say you have about five years left
Speaker 1: of cognitive ability predimensia early onset Parkinson's. I mean, these
Speaker 1: are all things right that that you were facing that
Speaker 1: you have halted and dramatically reverse in a pretty short
Speaker 1: amount of time, Bernie, I mean that's it's pretty breathtaking
Speaker 1: and you should be incredibly proud of that. Well, thanks, Chris.
Speaker 1: If even from the articulation communication, ability to enunciate words
Speaker 1: just bluntly remembering that you and me are what we're
Speaker 1: talking about, being able to stay on task and to
Speaker 1: make points. If you and may would have been doing
Speaker 1: this conversation or been on the sidelines of a UM
Speaker 1: game five years ago, it would have been a brief conversation.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure you would have even wanted me to
Speaker 1: to um UM to be on one of your telecasts
Speaker 1: like that. You know, pain killers are constant companions of athletes,
Speaker 1: particularly football players at different levels. You talked about having
Speaker 1: takes so many daily pills. How would you describe Bernie
Speaker 1: your relationship with I mean, these are powerful pain killers, OPI.
Speaker 1: It's how how at the lowest point, where were you
Speaker 1: with those Well, from a from a standpoint of if
Speaker 1: you just go back to the late nineties, early two thousands,
Speaker 1: we were flat out preached to that it's not addictive
Speaker 1: and it's not psychoactive, like we know that today in
Speaker 1: two thousand and twenty two. We've probably known that for
Speaker 1: the last few years, but ten to fifteen years ago.
Speaker 1: First sure, twenty and twenty five years ago, we were
Speaker 1: preached to that this is not psychoactive and that it's
Speaker 1: not addictive. So those first you know, being able to
Speaker 1: even realize that that's happened to you, UM was was
Speaker 1: was Matt was a massive issue from from that perspective
Speaker 1: with it. Will you begin the process and now you're
Speaker 1: you're off of the painkillers and you're doing your holistic approach,
Speaker 1: but still as hopeful as you want to be, as
Speaker 1: much as you're trusting your instincts and trusting these new
Speaker 1: people you're talking to you don't really know. But then
Speaker 1: you begin to see improvement, You begin to see positives
Speaker 1: that what was that like when you realized, ho, shit,
Speaker 1: I might actually have another path to take here because
Speaker 1: I'm getting progress in this area. Great, great question, Chris.
Speaker 1: And just just like the enthusiasm and your voice with it,
Speaker 1: that enthusiasm with me, um happened within a week or
Speaker 1: two coming out of coming out of that coma, and
Speaker 1: that that fastest results. And a lot of people say like, oh,
Speaker 1: you've got great self discipline where you're an athlete, you're tough,
Speaker 1: you know how to abstain or just change and do this.
Speaker 1: One of the beautiful things about the food is your medicine,
Speaker 1: the IVY therapy and the medicinal effects of the oil
Speaker 1: and the Rick Simpson's oil. And for people out there,
Speaker 1: not all stuff is made the same, so it's not
Speaker 1: all the same things, so you may not derive the
Speaker 1: same results just by picking something off to the street
Speaker 1: um or at at a dispense. That's a generic term.
Speaker 1: Rs is a generic term. It's made lots of different
Speaker 1: companies in different ways, and you should definitely, definitely do
Speaker 1: due diligence and research that if we're even considering it.
Speaker 1: I yeah, and absolutely the same on that with your
Speaker 1: IVY therapy. Not all ivys, not all vitamins are the same,
Speaker 1: just like not all food is the same, so you
Speaker 1: absolutely need to kind of research it out there. A
Speaker 1: lot of people have asked me, like, how come I'm
Speaker 1: not um selling my juice recipes, how come I'm not
Speaker 1: selling ivy therapy, how come I'm not selling the rs
Speaker 1: SO and the cbd s and the cbns that go
Speaker 1: along with that. And maybe someday I will, but like
Speaker 1: right now, I did not want and even today, you know,
Speaker 1: we have talked about this off. I didn't know want.
Speaker 1: I really wanted to help myself. I really feel a
Speaker 1: responsibility and calling to help others with this so too.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to make this about um um, a
Speaker 1: P and L or a business statement. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to sell you IVY therapy. I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to sell you anybody RSO or CBD today. I'm just
Speaker 1: relaying the my story about what I went through and
Speaker 1: how I'm able to get better with this. So. I
Speaker 1: don't have an economic motive for for even saying the
Speaker 1: I vs. The food the rs SO, but that and
Speaker 1: that makes it more powerful and honest and compelling. I
Speaker 1: get that. So when you're having having results though, you're
Speaker 1: starting to get positive steps, how are you feeling and
Speaker 1: what are people say? Yeah, so, Chris, That's what I
Speaker 1: wanted to say for some of the people listening out there.
Speaker 1: You know, if you if you're dependent on alcohol, you
Speaker 1: know that you are you dependent on opiates, you know
Speaker 1: you can't just stop. You know you're getting nervous about that.
Speaker 1: There's a physical, physical reactions that happens with things like
Speaker 1: that that that creates a lot of anxiety and a
Speaker 1: lot of physical issues. To be in and around other people.
Speaker 1: And then so that first week or so, it's amazing
Speaker 1: how you're able to physically detox people's bodies, and when
Speaker 1: they're physically detox um, you're able to um more rashly
Speaker 1: understand um kind of your situation. But what we found
Speaker 1: after a couple of weeks of of doing this, and
Speaker 1: this isn't a pit to say, hey, just do this
Speaker 1: for two weeks and your whole life's going to um
Speaker 1: change and you go back to where you're living. But
Speaker 1: what I found was, after doing this for a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks, it felt you could see light at the
Speaker 1: end of the tunnel. And this will sound like I'm
Speaker 1: making a claim for this, but it really was that
Speaker 1: this was the game changing part for me is I
Speaker 1: don't have to not drink right now nor take pills
Speaker 1: because I'm tough and self discipline when you do this.
Speaker 1: When I did this detox and I did this cleanse
Speaker 1: um holistically and organically, Chris, it ended up almost resetting
Speaker 1: my brain. So my brain doesn't really ask for that
Speaker 1: type stuff. And if you are a person who drinks
Speaker 1: too much, a person who's taking pills opiates, in particularly
Speaker 1: the mental illness pills, the the the adderalls, the depression
Speaker 1: type medicine, the sleeping pill is you almost start asking
Speaker 1: for it when you don't take them. What I found
Speaker 1: when I started doing this treatment with the changing of
Speaker 1: the diet, the I V S and the oils was
Speaker 1: it did a beautiful reset of my brain and people's
Speaker 1: brains to to actually help me with my articulation, enunciation,
Speaker 1: and communication. But it also took away that urge and
Speaker 1: that that dem in your head that says, hey, at
Speaker 1: happy hour today, let's go have a drink, that that
Speaker 1: that that voice in my head doesn't talk to me.
Speaker 1: And I found that to be a pretty consistent theme
Speaker 1: with a lot of people that I've been able to
Speaker 1: help share this message with. Yeah, I know, we want
Speaker 1: to be careful. The message here is not throw away
Speaker 1: your medicines, forget conventional wisdom, don't listen to your doctors.
Speaker 1: That's those are decisions everyone has to make on their own.
Speaker 1: You're saying what worked for you, and you were a
Speaker 1: very m low place, and I think anybody who's in
Speaker 1: a crisis situation has to take suck and make their
Speaker 1: own choice based on the people around them that they trust. Etcetera.
Speaker 1: But I know you're careful to say this is what
Speaker 1: worked for you, and you made dramatic and quick progress.
Speaker 1: Was there a moment, Bernie when you realized, Wow, I
Speaker 1: just put together through or four big words in a
Speaker 1: sentence and I haven't done that in a long time,
Speaker 1: and I didn't know if I ever would be able
Speaker 1: to and kind of a real turning point that you
Speaker 1: can recall. Yeah, Chris, you know what it's it's been.
Speaker 1: It's it's been really um those type of points happened
Speaker 1: so much at that first month to three months that
Speaker 1: and it had been you know, I'm saying five years,
Speaker 1: but probably longer because I think people, you know, weren't
Speaker 1: really telling you and you weren't really paying attention to
Speaker 1: to yourself as to uh, how you sounded and how
Speaker 1: you acted. But that was that was something that really
Speaker 1: after after like a month or so, I'm in here
Speaker 1: saying to myself, God, this is like a second chance
Speaker 1: in life. And you know the the U I said
Speaker 1: it earlier late third quarter or early fourth quarter of
Speaker 1: my life. But I feel like I've been given these
Speaker 1: gifts or shown these gifts and been given a second chance,
Speaker 1: and so so many of us here in this world
Speaker 1: deserve a second chance. And and when you when you're
Speaker 1: able to honestly kind of assess where you're at and
Speaker 1: openly look at yourself and say, hey, um, I'm proud
Speaker 1: of me. Yeah, I made some mistakes back my past,
Speaker 1: and then instead of sweeping under the table, I actually
Speaker 1: want to embrace them and learn from them and just
Speaker 1: make sure I don't make them again. And I really
Speaker 1: feel like that's kind of the pathway that I've been
Speaker 1: learning learning on. Yeah, the honesty that you've shown, the
Speaker 1: bravery and facing mistakes in being vulnerable. I mean, if
Speaker 1: people remember it was a decade ago broke, you were
Speaker 1: talking about a very different situation, but a very difficult
Speaker 1: situation in your life. If you were to to look
Speaker 1: back at at you, you know, on tape from that
Speaker 1: versus today, I mean, anybody will be startled. What what
Speaker 1: kind of feelings do you get when you when you
Speaker 1: see that this was just ten years ago? Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: when you look at some of those thirty thirties like
Speaker 1: um with the great Mark Schwarts who did a couple
Speaker 1: with me and uh Billy Corbyn, Um with the University
Speaker 1: of Miami, and you look at some of those where, um,
Speaker 1: most of what you filmed of me, most of what
Speaker 1: you edited, most of what we talked about, was not
Speaker 1: usable because I was so inarticulate, it was so challenged,
Speaker 1: And I actually thought I was in decent shape when
Speaker 1: I did those. Actually was proud of me then saying, God,
Speaker 1: I'm really better when I did those interviews, and I
Speaker 1: was the previous year, and I look at those now
Speaker 1: and I'm like, jeez, how did I even make it
Speaker 1: past the final editing of that? And and is something
Speaker 1: that maybe you were embarrassed stuff um or scared of
Speaker 1: because you were trying to do your best and you
Speaker 1: don't know even um what your future lies, was lies
Speaker 1: in store for you, or how to get yourself better?
Speaker 1: So um, to to figure that out and then to
Speaker 1: have yourself actually feeling better was this Just can't thank
Speaker 1: God enough for that, for that, for that gift. You
Speaker 1: said you feel a responsibility to share your story and
Speaker 1: offer suggestions, not not not heavy handedly, but offer ideas
Speaker 1: for for your brothers. You calling your brothers in the NFL. Well,
Speaker 1: really it extends, as you know, to a lot of
Speaker 1: middle aged guys, but guys who have been through a
Speaker 1: tough demanding job like playing NFL football, and take me
Speaker 1: through kind of your thought process and where where you
Speaker 1: are now trying to share your experience with those guys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well you know Chris and from our NFL brothers out there, Um,
Speaker 1: we we have been through a lot. But even for
Speaker 1: guys who haven't played, Um, you and me, we're talking
Speaker 1: about you know, as we get into our fifties, as
Speaker 1: as older men, we are wanting to be leaders who
Speaker 1: want to be heads of our family. We want to
Speaker 1: know all the answers who want to be that wise, profound,
Speaker 1: um leaders person. And the reality is all of our
Speaker 1: bodies are breaking at this age. I'm not just a
Speaker 1: football players. So for my brothers in the league and
Speaker 1: for all of us guys, it's okay to say that
Speaker 1: we're not perfect and we're breaking down a little bit.
Speaker 1: And it's a little as I find it almost funny
Speaker 1: slash sad funny that so many of us guys have
Speaker 1: trouble admitting that we're not perfect and that we're breaking down.
Speaker 1: What's the value Bernie and facing that admitting that hey,
Speaker 1: we're not as strong and fast as we used to be,
Speaker 1: and to admit you're slowing down and face it. What's
Speaker 1: the You know why, I believe because I don't think
Speaker 1: you could really address and fix an issue until you
Speaker 1: really admit there is the issue. So you know, it's
Speaker 1: one thing to say, hey, Chris follower should work on this.
Speaker 1: I'm not Chris, I'm Burnie. But um for Bernie to say, hey,
Speaker 1: Bernie needs to work on this. Burnie has this issue.
Speaker 1: And so many guys that don't think we don't want
Speaker 1: to admit what our issue is. And when you admit,
Speaker 1: but maybe my limitations or my weaknesses are, or my
Speaker 1: things that I could do better are, that's that's the
Speaker 1: first step towards your pathway of of correcting that issue.
Speaker 1: To what degree is football responsible for your situation? And
Speaker 1: and despite the love you had for the game from
Speaker 1: a very young age, when you say, look what football,
Speaker 1: you know did to your mind and body, look at
Speaker 1: the position that put you in. How do you wrestle
Speaker 1: with that? If you do, I reconcile it um. Again,
Speaker 1: This isn't to pick on the old teams. This isn't
Speaker 1: a pick on the NFL. This isn't a position myself
Speaker 1: for any of those concussion litigations or disability insurance things
Speaker 1: that they run a sex players through that ultimately don't
Speaker 1: really bear bear fruit and anything other than putting you
Speaker 1: on more planes that put you at risk procedures and
Speaker 1: O'Hare airport. Um, but I was I. I think I
Speaker 1: joked on air before or off air before we started,
Speaker 1: and I was so excited that my son when he
Speaker 1: stopped playing football, because um, he doesn't have to. I
Speaker 1: don't want to see him go through a lot of
Speaker 1: these issues that paying the broken bones, the head issues
Speaker 1: that that his dad had to go through. But I
Speaker 1: don't say that from a what was me standpoint, And Chris,
Speaker 1: I think ultimately to what your question was, I actually,
Speaker 1: I'm so so proud and happy that I did this,
Speaker 1: that played football, And actually I'm not a masochist. I'm
Speaker 1: not too demented. I believe UM probably been hitting the
Speaker 1: head too much to think like this, But I'm really
Speaker 1: actually glad it happened. And I actually believe it happened
Speaker 1: for a reason because if I didn't go through all this,
Speaker 1: if I didn't have all those injuries, if I didn't
Speaker 1: um have the issues that happened, I would have been
Speaker 1: so easy. I wouldn't have I wouldn't been able to
Speaker 1: determine figure out really helped develop this pathway of holistic
Speaker 1: wellness and healthy living that actually a fifty eight years
Speaker 1: old has me feeling better today than I did it
Speaker 1: at forty eight. So UM, I'm actually glad it happened.
Speaker 1: I'm super happy I played. I don't regret it to
Speaker 1: the point because I wouldn't be able to have learned
Speaker 1: this stuff if my body didn't go through all those
Speaker 1: forty su surgeries and semi eighty broken bones, all those concussions.
Speaker 1: I don't think, I I know, I wouldn't have had
Speaker 1: the spirit, the the energy, the focus to attack this
Speaker 1: issue selfishly, probably for myself so that I could be here,
Speaker 1: but now for my brothers and for for guys from
Speaker 1: across the country. This is this is really for people
Speaker 1: at UM a lifestyle now that I really believe UM
Speaker 1: is a pathway to real happiness and some of this
Speaker 1: stuff that you know, uh, I've been talking so much about,
Speaker 1: like what's been happening in society. You know, we've had
Speaker 1: this virus the last couple of years, we had we
Speaker 1: had those issues with January six, the extremists that's going on.
Speaker 1: Whether you're a d or in our black or white,
Speaker 1: the virus, staying in, staying out. We saw what happened
Speaker 1: in in Buffalo just this past week, We're watching what's
Speaker 1: happening in Ukraine. I mean, this is extremism that's going
Speaker 1: out there in society. UM. This is now almost a
Speaker 1: situation now where whether it's UM US, athletes, celebrities of
Speaker 1: people that haven't have a platform. Now, I really believe
Speaker 1: it's almost the responsibility of us to get out there
Speaker 1: and let cooler heads but sure heads prevail, and to
Speaker 1: be able to to have a genuine care again back
Speaker 1: to the you matter, why we care about people as UM.
Speaker 1: Now is a situation where there's such extreme almost hostility
Speaker 1: towards so many people that being able to show genuine
Speaker 1: caring and genuine love and genuinely want to see you
Speaker 1: do good just for the sake of you're doing good.
Speaker 1: I think that spirit is so essentially needed within our
Speaker 1: country and within our world right now. Now, you said, well,
Speaker 1: there are massive problems that are very difficult, if not
Speaker 1: nearly impossible, to solve on many levels, seemingly, yet it
Speaker 1: does start with an individual. If you start by improving yourself,
Speaker 1: if you start by wanting to improve the others around you.
Speaker 1: That is something that is something you can control in
Speaker 1: a world where so much feels uncontrollable. So you sound
Speaker 1: pretty charged up about where you are despite being in
Speaker 1: a troubled world. Uh and each day, I mean, what
Speaker 1: how would you characterized sort of you know this this
Speaker 1: current chapter in your life is it? Is it a
Speaker 1: new lease? How do you describe where you are at
Speaker 1: fifty eight now? Well, you know what, it's absolutely a
Speaker 1: new lease, a second chance, a responsibility to to really share,
Speaker 1: share this message, share this passion, share these gifts. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I I say for our brothers in the league,
Speaker 1: but it's really for all of us right now. And
Speaker 1: you know as as um, so for me, you know,
Speaker 1: really wanting to be around people and our companies you
Speaker 1: know that are really socially and environmentally conscious, you know
Speaker 1: that are really dedicated to improving the health and wellness
Speaker 1: of people, families and communities on our planet. Um. That
Speaker 1: type of genuine giving back and that type of genuine
Speaker 1: help right now is something that you know, as I'm
Speaker 1: I said a couple of times on on the on
Speaker 1: the called here today as I get into the early
Speaker 1: fourth quarter light third quarter of my life is something
Speaker 1: that I'm really committed to do and I'm super proud
Speaker 1: to be doing. What has you most excited? What? What?
Speaker 1: What do you see as of course sort of a
Speaker 1: specific purpose? Um, you know going forward if you're in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, man, I hope you have double overtime.
Speaker 1: I mean, let's not let's not worry about the clock
Speaker 1: ticket just yet. The way you're doing right now, and
Speaker 1: you've defied so many experts opinions, we could be sitting
Speaker 1: here in ten twenty years having a conversation like this hopefully. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, the the human body, the human body, and
Speaker 1: the organs to live to be a hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: a hundred and thirty years old, carried away, getting the
Speaker 1: getting the toxins out of our environment, getting the toxins,
Speaker 1: flushing it out of our body is absolutely a prerequisite
Speaker 1: to trying to hit that centennial, that centennial number. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's that's a great thing. And I think that if
Speaker 1: it took um all those broken bones and all those
Speaker 1: surgeries and all those pills and all that fear and
Speaker 1: uncertainty and a near death experience to get you here,
Speaker 1: then that's what it took. But yeah, I thank god
Speaker 1: you got there and I was I went, I never
Speaker 1: really I've been through stages in life of the roller
Speaker 1: coaster and stuff. They're always wanting to be positive and
Speaker 1: and try to again as as I talked to Or
Speaker 1: of trying to always turn a negative situation into a
Speaker 1: positive situation. UM. Having some of those injuries, having the concussions,
Speaker 1: having the coma, having again those surgeries, UM, I actually
Speaker 1: look at that as a blessing because I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: been able to understand, UM this pathway, and I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have been able to have the courage, I think to
Speaker 1: to try some of these newer UM To me, they
Speaker 1: don't seem speculative today, although when I was doing them
Speaker 1: four or five, six years that they probably seemed like
Speaker 1: I was reaching and speculative move. But you know, today,
Speaker 1: to be able to have done that, I really believe
Speaker 1: it's I've been put on this earth for kind of
Speaker 1: that pathway. But there are still skeptics. What do you
Speaker 1: run up against in terms of people saying add that,
Speaker 1: come on, Bernie, you whore? You kidding? That's not going
Speaker 1: to work. Yeah, you know what, Chris. Unfortunately I wish
Speaker 1: I could disagree with you, but unfortunately you're right, Um,
Speaker 1: there there are quite a few people. And that's kind
Speaker 1: of why also I haven't overly talked about it, and
Speaker 1: why it really hasn't been a business part of mine,
Speaker 1: because when you start, if I was selling you the food,
Speaker 1: the I V s or the the th HC CBD oils,
Speaker 1: people tend to say, oh, you're you're you're biased towards that.
Speaker 1: You're you're just trying to do it from a business perspective. So, UM,
Speaker 1: I haven't been doing it from that perspective. A matter
Speaker 1: of fact, it tends to be the people who UM
Speaker 1: ask me these questions, um, mainly because they're almost desperate
Speaker 1: themselves and and so I for sometimes the people who
Speaker 1: look at me with a john decide or Um, I
Speaker 1: think I'm embellishing or making up the issues. I wish
Speaker 1: I was making up the issues. I wish I was
Speaker 1: embellishing some of the stuff that I had to go through.
Speaker 1: But um, when I uh, that happens, and I uh,
Speaker 1: you prefer it not to happen. But the positive feelings
Speaker 1: you get when you see the difference in the people
Speaker 1: that I've been able to drastically change their lives and
Speaker 1: see that they have a second chance. They have an
Speaker 1: ability now to go back to leading their families, being
Speaker 1: productive in society. It's it's game changing for me personally. Well,
Speaker 1: that chance conversation where I ask you how you were
Speaker 1: the most inane question, most innocuous, when you can possibly
Speaker 1: ask somebody and where you have related to your story,
Speaker 1: I mean I would never have known. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: people say this, Uh had you not described where you
Speaker 1: were and how low you got? Uh that you had
Speaker 1: been all through that hearing you now because I was
Speaker 1: your your your brain was always your best weapon as
Speaker 1: a quarterball cerebral quarterback. It was it was your mind
Speaker 1: that really got you through. You weren't the fastest guy.
Speaker 1: That's why you got hit so many times. I had
Speaker 1: so many concussions. But to have that part Bernie come
Speaker 1: back together, have everything firing, to see you smiling right now,
Speaker 1: I mean it makes the many many millions of fancy
Speaker 1: years feel good. Well, thanks for all the younger viewers
Speaker 1: or listeners out there. I don't want to do too
Speaker 1: much truth serum, but for a guy who ran a
Speaker 1: five five forty and had his chest and mentally, I
Speaker 1: had to be major league cognizant of my head. And
Speaker 1: keep my brain in in uh, in working order, because
Speaker 1: my physical abilities weren't going to get me through and
Speaker 1: that and that again was probably something that I that
Speaker 1: I'm proud that to have had that issue, because I
Speaker 1: don't think I would have Yeah, I'm not a massocrest,
Speaker 1: but I don't think I would have been as injured
Speaker 1: as much and then wouldn't have been able to kind
Speaker 1: of learn some of these life lessons that thankfully I survived.
Speaker 1: I think I survived him and now I'm able to
Speaker 1: start passing him on to other people. And you know,
Speaker 1: we had said earlier, what's happening in society, what's happened
Speaker 1: with the virus, what's happening with mental illness and depression
Speaker 1: and the need for mental wellness now and your physical
Speaker 1: body is absolutely connected to your your physics, your mental
Speaker 1: wellness to um, the last couple of years have made me. Besides,
Speaker 1: I've gotten better and healthier. Um, what's happened around us
Speaker 1: in society has made it almost essential that even if
Speaker 1: people look at me with a little bit of a
Speaker 1: john decide with it. I know there are a lot
Speaker 1: of people that are looking at it and getting relief
Speaker 1: from it and finding ways to um get their second
Speaker 1: chance of life. You know, when you ask an old acquaintance,
Speaker 1: how are you, what have you been up to? You
Speaker 1: just might be shocked and inspired by their answer. I'm
Speaker 1: certainly grateful I asked Bernie of those questions at the
Speaker 1: practice field of his alma mater. There was so much
Speaker 1: more to Bernie's story, so many twists and turns that
Speaker 1: we can cover in one podcast. It ought to be
Speaker 1: made into a movie. I would buy a ticket again.
Speaker 1: I want to emphasize that swearing off medications and using
Speaker 1: alternative approaches are serious decisions. It worked for Bernie, but
Speaker 1: they should be made after research and thought and conversations
Speaker 1: with people that you trust. This wraps up season four
Speaker 1: of Power Who You Got? My co executive producer Jennifer
Speaker 1: Dempster and editor Jason white Hilt, and I certainly grateful
Speaker 1: for your interest and support and the growth of this podcast.
Speaker 1: There are plenty of great episodes archives for you to
Speaker 1: check out. We'll go in our usual summer hiatus and
Speaker 1: then come back with more new episodes. I'll talk to
Speaker 1: it then and I'll see it from Wimbledon